Good company blogs are sneaky SEO machines, but plenty of companies have tried blogging without seeing any results. Or worse: their ranking falls once they start blogging.

I talk about blogs being trust-builders. They’re valuable resources for your audience. They position you as an expert in your industry, someone your clients or customers can rely on for advice and information.

But here’s the sneaky part: while they’re doing all that, they’re also humming away in the background and getting you on Google’s radar. Blogs can help your SEO. End of story.

Not only that, but they can boost your ranking in a completely natural way, so visitors to your site aren’t going to feel frustrated or hoodwinked (and Google isn’t going to penalize you for using some not-so-kosher strategies).

There’s only one caveat: your blog has to be fabulous.

If your company blog is an afterthought, it can do severe damage to your rankings.

Flashback to SEO 101

Google – and other search engines – use robots to understand what’s happening on

the internet. These bots (also known as “spiders” or “web crawlers” because tech is creepy sometimes) memorize details about your site and share it with the engine database.

When someone searches, the engine then uses algorithms to sort through all their robot information in the hopes of delivering the searcher exactly what they’re looking for.

In the early days of search (anyone else remember Alta Vista?) the algorithms weren’t very intelligent. When someone searched for “yoga tips for expectant mothers”, they would offer up websites which used that exact phrase. The more often they used that phrase, the higher up in the rankings it would be.

Those were the bad old days. Algorithms are much, much smarter now. They take into consideration a lot of information: links away from your site, links to your site on other pages, how popular your site is, how often and how lately it’s been updated. They also read the page, noting any copied information or stilted language.

Why Does This Matter?

The goal for search engines is to make their algorithms understand a site the way humans do. They’re getting close.

Building a blog on your site is like setting out an information feast for search engine bots to take back to the algorithms.

If it’s done well, you can make an excellent impression.

If it’s poorly made – a half-frozen microwave dinner of content – then the bots are going to notice that too.

As far as search engines are concerned, your blog isn’t separate from the rest of your website.

However the algorithms feel about your blog is how they feel about your whole site.

Technical Quick Fixes

If you want to build a banquet for the bots (and your audience), you have to start from the ground up.

Tiny technical mistakes can cost you visitors in the long run. Luckily, they’re much easier to fix than unappealing content.

What blogging schedule can you commit to and maintain for long enough to measure its impact?

Offering excellent content is only going to increase in importance as the landscape becomes more and more crowded.

Refocus your blogging strategy now to stay relevant to both search engines and your audience.

Good company blogs are sneaky SEO machines, but plenty of companies have tried blogging without seeing any results. Or worse: their ranking falls once they start blogging.

I talk about blogs being trust-builders. They’re valuable resources for your audience. They position you as an expert in your industry, someone your clients or customers can rely on for advice and information.

But here’s the sneaky part: while they’re doing all that, they’re also humming away in the background and getting you on Google’s radar. Blogs can help your SEO. End of story.

Not only that, but they can boost your ranking in a completely natural way, so visitors to your site aren’t going to feel frustrated or hoodwinked (and Google isn’t going to penalize you for using some not-so-kosher strategies).

There’s only one caveat: your blog has to be fabulous.

If your company blog is an afterthought, it can do severe damage to your rankings.

Flashback to SEO 101

Google – and other search engines – use robots to understand what’s happening on

the internet. These bots (also known as “spiders” or “web crawlers” because tech is creepy sometimes) memorize details about your site and share it with the engine database.

When someone searches, the engine then uses algorithms to sort through all their robot information in the hopes of delivering the searcher exactly what they’re looking for.

In the early days of search (anyone else remember Alta Vista?) the algorithms weren’t very intelligent. When someone searched for “yoga tips for expectant mothers”, they would offer up websites which used that exact phrase. The more often they used that phrase, the higher up in the rankings it would be.

Those were the bad old days. Algorithms are much, much smarter now. They take into consideration a lot of information: links away from your site, links to your site on other pages, how popular your site is, how often and how lately it’s been updated. They also read the page, noting any copied information or stilted language.

Why Does This Matter?

The goal for search engines is to make their algorithms understand a site the way humans do. They’re getting close.

Building a blog on your site is like setting out an information feast for search engine bots to take back to the algorithms.

If it’s done well, you can make an excellent impression.

If it’s poorly made – a half-frozen microwave dinner of content – then the bots are going to notice that too.

As far as search engines are concerned, your blog isn’t separate from the rest of your website.

However the algorithms feel about your blog is how they feel about your whole site.

Technical Quick Fixes

If you want to build a banquet for the bots (and your audience), you have to start from the ground up.

Tiny technical mistakes can cost you visitors in the long run. Luckily, they’re much easier to fix than unappealing content.

What blogging schedule can you commit to and maintain for long enough to measure its impact?

Offering excellent content is only going to increase in importance as the landscape becomes more and more crowded.

Refocus your blogging strategy now to stay relevant to both search engines and your audience.

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Shay Sinclair

Writer. Content Marketer. Gryffindor.

Shay Sinclair is an absolute geek about writing, wellness, and helping wellness businesses grow (through writing). Over five years of writing and ghostwriting she’s done everything from connecting multi-national wellness companies with their clients to increasing traffic for tiny start-ups. (She’s also a journalism graduate, so she hates talking about herself.)